Forum Digest: Loroi

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File Updated:
Monday, January 25, 2016

Origins and Empire

The
place of origin of the Loroi species is unknown; the Loroi
are one of three known starfaring species collectively referred to as the Soia-Liron,
whose biochemistries are very similar, and whose technological
civilizations predate the fall of the ancient
Soia Empire, which
at its height controlled much of the Orion arm of our galaxy. Following the
collapse of the empire several hundred thousand years ago, the
Loroi, like nearly all the races of the local region at that
time, suffered a complete breakdown of their starfaring
civilizations, and endured an extended dark age in which their
technological sophistication regressed to pre-industrial levels.
Scattered across the three Sister Worlds of Deinar, Taben and
Perrein (also known as the Splinter Colonies), Loroi enclaves
independently rebuilt their civilization over the millennia,
slowly regaining lost knowledge with the help of the artifacts
that littered the Soia ruins. After the rediscovery of
starflight in 850 CE, the Loroi followed in the footsteps of the
Soia (from whom the Loroi believe they are descended), expanding
their sphere of influence through both conquest and alliance.

Today, the Loroi Empire spans several
hundred inhabited star systems in the direction of Taurus, and
incorporates 9 sentient species. Nominally, the Empire is a Union in which
each member nation governs itself, but in practice it is a military
protectorate dominated by the Loroi. Supreme executive authority is held by a
Loroi Azerein (Emperor) who is commander in
chief of the military; she is selected by the Diadem Council (the upper echelons of
the Torrai leadership caste which is essentially an Admiralty
Board) and rules for life, or until she is removed
from office. Given the long lifespan of Loroi, it is not
unusual for an Azerein to be in power for more than
a hundred years. In the more than 750 years since the inception
of the office, there have been only four Loroi to hold the title, and
only the first one died of old age.

The Imperial capital is located on the cool, arid
world of Deinar. In time of war, the Emperor and much of her government conduct
their business from aboard flagships of the Imperial Fleet
rather than the traditional palaces of Toridas on Deinar. Of
the other two Sister Words, Perrein is a
steamy jungle; Taben is mostly ocean. See main article:
Sister Worlds.

Isn't
the female ruler of an empire called an Empress, not an Emperor?

I'm using "Emperor" because in our culture, an Empress is the wife of a
ruler of an empire, and rarely a ruler herself. Using a feminine
form implies that there may be a corresponding male
counterpart, which isn't the case for the Loroi. I don't view
"Emperor" as any more exclusively masculine than "Senator" or
"Governor" or "Chancellor" or "Minister" or other such titles
that we routinely now apply to females.

Biology

The Loroi are remarkably humanlike in appearance,
though with blue skin and pointed ears, and unusual range of hair and eye
color. They are slightly smaller and more slender
than humans; the average female stands 170 cm (5'7") tall,
and males rarely more than 150 cm (5'). Nearly 90% of Loroi
births are female. Most Loroi are left-handed. Loroi
possess a unique form of telepathic communication known as sanzai
("sending"). A small percentage of Loroi also possess
psychokinetic abilities.

Despite
their outward similarity, Loroi and humans are very different
biochemically and genetically. Loroi blood is blue, based on the
same transport mechanism (most likely an exotic form of hemocyanin)
as the other known Soia-Liron species. Loroi internal body
temperature is lower than humans', about 27ºC (80ºF), and
Loroi metabolism is highly efficient; adult Loroi normally eat only once
per day. Young Loroi mature
rapidly, reaching physical adulthood in 8 years, but age slowly,
potentially living for 400 years or more. Loroi do not show
significant signs of aging until shortly before they die. There
is a small amount of growth in bone and cartilage throughout a Loroi's life, so an older Loroi is likely to be taller, and have
longer ears and nose than a younger Loroi. Older Loroi often
grow their hair longer, as well.

Would
the Loroi home world have very low UV? After all, if you can see
the color of their veins through their skin (just like people
from really far north), then they'd sunburn real easy.

In humans,
our white skin is given pinkish color from our blood, and tan or
brown color from melanin (the UV protective pigment). In Loroi,
their skin is also white, tinted blue by blood. Loroi also have
an anti-UV pigment, which gives the skin a slightly
grayish-brown tint, which can be seen in the darker-hued Loroi
(Fireblade being the notable example). Shipboard Loroi do tend
to be pale, as they don't get much sunlight.

A
10-to-1 split between female & male? That's pretty skewed.
Don't most higher animals with two sexes pretty much split it
right down the middle?

Yes.

Or are
the Loroi sort of like bees, with a high percentage of sterile
"female" drones in the population?

No, all the
females are fertile. This combined with the large percentage of
females and rapid maturation of offspring is potentially
explosive from a population growth point of view; however, the social
structure of the Loroi normally puts tight restrictions on the
access of females to the males. The Loroi view this as an
important adaptation for a warrior species, as they have the
flexibility to rapidly increase their population growth (or stagnate
it) as the situation demands through social controls.

Assuming
a male Loroi has a "sexual career" somewhat equal to a
human (call it 40 years - yes I'm an optimist), then he has the
potential to see six generations go by before he
"retires." That'd be his great-great-great-great grand
daughter.

Male
Loroi can be reproductively active for hundreds of years, and
generations can be very short; Loroi are physically adult at age 8 and complete standard
education at 10-12. Other than injury or health problems, Loroi
don't age much outwardly until shortly before they die, and are
physically and sexually active throughout most of their
lifespans. It can be hard to tell a 30 year old Loroi from a 150 year
old Loroi, so they don't have the same age-gap sex taboos that we do.
So yes, a Loroi male could potentially father many thousands of
children in his lifetime. Female Loroi can also potentially give
birth to many children during a long lifetime, but female
fertility declines markedly with age.

However, there is a "generation gap" of a different
sort. Under peacetime conditions there must clearly be limits on
Loroi population growth; the Loroi live a long time. Prior to the
start of the war, in much of established Loroi territory, it was
only the older, high-status Loroi who were permitted to
reproduce (to replace individuals dying of old age). So what you had prior to the start of the war was an
older Loroi population and relatively few younger Loroi. When
the war started, the population limits were lifted, and so now
25 years later what you have are a group of Loroi who are very
young, and a group of Loroi who are much older, and very few in
between.

Are
Humans and Loroi sexually compatible? Could they produce hybrid
offspring?

While
Humans and Loroi are outwardly very similar, their
biochemistries are quite different and incompatible. It
doesn't take much to be physically sexually compatible (after
all, even human men can have sex with other men), and Loroi and Humans
could certainly engage in the physical act of sex, but such
unions could not possibly produce viable offspring.

However, aside from the biochemical
incompatibility, Loroi and Humans have essentially the same
concept of male and female, and essentially identical sexual
apparatus. The Loroi females carry the zygotes that are fertilized by
gametes from the males, and the females carry fetuses to term
and deliver them in live birth.

Do Loroi
females have monthly or yearly reproductive cycles? I'd bet
yearly, since with the scarcity of males there's likely to be a
lot of "lost opportunities" otherwise.

Loroi females don't actually begin their
reproductive cycles until after they are fertilized, so they don't have
monthly "periods." The Loroi female's body must be able to
preserve the male gametes until her reproductive system can get
up to speed (which would probably take several weeks). There is
ample precedent for this in terrestrial organisms -- for
example, an ant queen is fertilized only once, and can preserve
the sperm for her entire lifespan of several decades. The reason behind this feature is that
for Loroi females, opportunities for copulation with a male are infrequent and
often unscheduled; having regular menstruations to stay ready for
the possibility of fertilization would be wasteful
and debilitating, especially since females are the warrior
class. By being able to store the male gametes and begin the
reproductive cycle after insemination, Loroi
females can be constantly prepared for the possibility of fertilization, without
the costly monthly "curse."

Which is a good thing for the galaxy, if you think about it.

Since
Alex has no breathing apparatus aboard the Loroi ship, why isn't
he a) choking on a poisonous atmosphere, or b) dying of
infection from alien microbes?

Luckily, this is the sort of convenient space opera universe where most of the
species breathe the same basic nitrogen-oxygen mixture. I think
this is not all that unreasonable an assumption, given the
chemistry of oxygen and carbon dioxide on a planet with
photosynthetic plants, which is a good place to start for any
alien biome. As for
naughty Loroi microbes, I must assume that
the Loroi had sufficient medical technology and concern for
Alex's health to have considered these issues before they cracked him out
of his suit.

It is
very possible that Earth and Deinar were 'seeded' by the same
thing; there is evidence that a Mars-rock carried over the
original RNA to the earth. Of course, that would just mean that
the base-pairs (right usage of term?) are the same (except
perhaps 't').

Seeded
DNA might
account for similar genetic structures or biochemistry, but it wouldn't result
in such similarity of external form. Evolution doesn't work that way;
all creatures on Earth evolved from the same primordial DNA, but
that doesn't make humans and cuttlefish look anything alike.
The Loroi didn't originally evolve on Deinar anyway; it's not known
where the Loroi originated from.

Society

As
a warrior culture, Loroi society is heavily stratified, and its
institutions and customs can be very rigid. Details of specific traditions and
rituals can be diverse, having progressed in parallel on three
separate splinter colonies, and having since spread to dozens of
additional worlds. There are, for example, many diverging
dialects of the Trade Language that the Loroi jointly inherited
from their Soia predecessors. Most of the core features of Loroi
society are, however, common to most of the sub-cultures, and in
almost all cases, society revolves around the warrior class. Loroi
society is sharply partitioned into three segments: the females
of the warrior class, the civilian females, and the males. The
warrior class, accounting for roughly half of the population,
fill nearly all military and governmental functions, and are
themselves subdivided into numerous specialized castes that are
similar (in division of duty) to our armed services. The civilian population is
considered to be inferior in rank and importance to the
military, but they are organized by profession in a similar way
into groups that resemble trade guilds. Civilian institutions
exist almost solely to support the military. The males, roughly
one tenth of the population, exist mostly outside the normal structure of class,
family and caste.
Excluded from many professions and under pressure from the
practical demands of reproduction, males nevertheless form an
important element of the Loroi social machine.

Prior
to reunification, many Loroi nations were ruled by matrilineal
oligarchies based on clan relations. At the conclusion of the
Loroi civil war in 1402, when the new Imperial government
replaced provincial feudal authorities, many of the traditional
clan names were abolished -- a Loroi warrior's spoken name is
now preceded by her caste name in place of the traditional clan
name. Many regional institutions that were dominated by single
families (including some starships) were forcibly
"diversified." Despite these measures to increase
central authority, extended family affiliation continues to be a
strong social force.

So, how
does the caste system work? Can the Loroi choose what they want
to do for a living, or are they assigned to their castes at
birth?

As the name implies, the castes are mostly
hereditary -- the daughter of a member of a warrior caste is
normally expected to follow in her mother's footsteps. For the military castes, some movement is
allowed, but it is very limited. A female child is formally assigned by her
family to a caste at about age six; normally this is the same
caste as her mother (see the article on Warrior
Rites). Some of the
warrior castes have very specific genetic or psionic traits as
requirements, so often being qualified means being the child of a
caste member, but it sometimes means that a qualified individual
in a sought-after specialty might be admitted regardless of her
heritage. In time of war, the government may preempt family
choice to fill needed roles.
Membership in a warrior caste is considered a sought-after
privilege; those who refuse or are unable to complete warrior
training are "demoted" to civilian life. A warrior may
have the option to switch specialties after completing the
warrior training of a different caste, subject to the approval
of the caste bureaucracy.

The
rules for civilian guilds are less restrictive, as they do not
depend on passing warrior trials at a young age, and there is
more movement between specialties. However, civilians are not
normally eligible to join the warrior castes, even in time of
war.

Gender, Mating and Sexuality

Males
make up only a small percentage of the Loroi population, and are considered to be technically outside the caste
and class system, and are excluded from all military and most
civilian careers, but
their role in Loroi society can be influential. In addition
to the direct influence of the male philosopher orders like the Nedatan, the
indirect influence of males in connecting the bloodlines of
otherwise disparate clan groups can be significant. Mating between a male and female usually consists of a number
of encounters spread across several days, but matches are
temporary, and after that it's very unlikely that they will ever
meet again, even if the female becomes pregnant and bears
offspring. Most Loroi subcultures have no concept of marriage.
Thus, the Loroi concept of family is a
broad one encompassing a female Loroi's sisters, cousins, aunts
and other close relatives.

Do the Loroi have a
specialized sex industry?

All sexual access to males is
restricted by law and must be arranged through various kinds of
formal matchmaking; a male and female can't just meet at the
mall and decide to have a date. So in that sense, all of the
males are part of a sex industry. But in most cases a female
can't just show up at a location and pay for sex; access to a
male usually has to be earned through status and rank.

All Loroi males are wards of the state as regards sexual
access; administration of this access (matchmaking) is delegated
to various entities, including local governments, some caste
bureaucracies, some civilian guilds and orders, and in rare
cases individual Loroi. Usually, sexual access is administrated
by whatever guild or order to which the male belongs, as many
professions for males are directly or indirectly tied to their
sexual function. For example, males who are philosophers or
spiritual advisors or psychologists or physical therapists or
telepathic therapists usually provide these services to the
female "clients" they're matched with as a supplement to the
actual sex. Lower-ranking males without advanced training or skills might
spend more time on the sex part, and I suppose these would be
the closest thing the Loroi would have to our idea of a sex
worker.

In some cases, a very influential private group or individual
may be able to secure long-term access to the rights to a male.
One example of this would be very high-ranking military officers
who sometimes receive such access along with the military title.
However, this is not used solely by the officer to secure sexual
rights to a male for herself, but often instead to control who
gets access to a very high-status male. Sometimes high-ranking
females secure access to their own male relatives, so that they
can be matched with political allies. This is one of the few
situations in which males may function as part of a female
"family."

There will certainly be an industry around the "red light
districts" in which the mating encounters happen. Though I think the
emphasis will usually be on an upscale experience, since
everything is very official and sanctioned, and most of the
clients will be of high social status. I imagine something
like the Japanese hanamachi districts in which the courtesans
were quartered: very ornate and expensive, and surrounded with much ceremony.
It's possible that some mating rituals might involve the females
bringing ritual gifts, but since neither party chooses his or
her partner, I doubt such gifting has reached the industrial levels it has
in Western society.

How does this
matchmaking work and what kind of attributes are influencing the
matchmaking, except status, mental and physical health? Caste
membership?

There are certain career milestones that will provide almost
everyone with "encounter time", such as graduation from warrior
trials or the civilian training equivalent. Beyond that, it's a
question of male availability and female priority/status.
Warriors have priority over civilians, and rank/social status
increases priority. Priority determines not just how much time,
but which males are allocated; high-status males like Nedatan
(philosopher)
order members with a pedigreed parentage are a lot harder to get
time with than a more common stud-farm male with few additional
skills -- in addition to a nicer experience, the goal here is
pregnancy, so pedigree will matter.

Males that are administrated by castes/guilds/orders will
often be allocated to members or clients of that organization.
Males administered by small groups or individuals can be
allocated to anyone they choose (usually friends, cronies and
prospective allies).

Are there different
forms of matchmaking for each Loroi culture and what kind of
differences are there?

I don't imagine too much variation because the core problems
will be essentially the same, and because everyone will have to
conform to some basic standards set by the central government
(as these rules are used for global population control).
Some subcultures might ritualize the matchmaking process more
than others. Some might be more lax in easing restrictions, such
as in colonial areas where population growth was encouraged even
in peacetime. Some might make a lottery out of it. If there was
anywhere that a female could actually go and buy sex, it would
probably be in the Maia
system.

Can a male refuse sex?

Yes, certainly. Sexual rights to a male can be transferred,
and he generally has no say in who he is matched with, but males
are not slaves, and sex must always be consensual; he always has
the right to refuse sex if he doesn't approve of the partner. A
male who is not interested in sex at all (for whatever reason) can
refuse to be matched at all. As you might expect, it's difficult
for a female to force herself on a male in any meaningful way
beyond pure physical abuse. However, such a refusal would be
pretty rare; Loroi males are very good sports (and most Loroi
warrior females are healthy, fit, good-looking people).

If the males are not
part of these female "families", do they have some kind of
similar "family" connection between them? Like father, son and
grandson?

Parent-child relationships are often not very strong in Loroi
of either gender, because the parent usually takes very little
direct role in raising the child, and so your mother is usually not very
distinct from the numerous aunts and cousins and other adult
women you grew up around. Parents who take a particular interest
in their children may develop strong friendships with them, but
there is usually not that automatic bond between mother and
child that we are accustomed to. This relationship is probably
even less common between fathers and sons, as fathers will
rarely meet any of their offspring, unless perhaps the son joins
the same local caste/order and they become acquainted that way.

Given the low male birth rates, brothers will be very rare.
Most Loroi brothers are probably twins, who would have a special
relationship above and beyond family. But again, this would be
rare.

What are the Loroi
concepts of love? For a species in which pair bonding is likely
nonexistent, I can't see them having a concept of romantic love.
That could change, though, depending on Loroi attitudes towards
homosexuality. As the Loroi do have family units and warrior
crèches, I can see them having concepts of familial and platonic
love.

Love is permitted and even encouraged, but attachment is not.
Loroi females enjoy the mating encounters, and not just the
physical aspect of them, and can develop strong affection for
the male mating partner and remember the interaction fondly for
many years thereafter, during the long periods in which she will
be expected to go without having sex. However, because the males
must be shared with other females, there are taboos against
infatuation and jealousy. While healthy rivalry is encouraged
between warrior females in nearly all matters, jealously over a
male is considered a repugnant trait on par with dishonesty.
Even just requesting a second encounter with the same male would
be seen as a warning sign of potential attachment.

However, rules are made to be broken, and a female with
sufficient power and privilege can, if she wishes, see a
particular male more than once, or even have him allocated
exclusively to herself. There are cases where male and female
form permanent emotional attachments, but these are subjects of
the kinds of tales that don't end well, resulting in high body
counts and fallen kingdoms. When a female becomes obsessed with
and refuses to share a male, this is viewed as a signal to her
friends (and to her enemies) that she's about to go off the
rails. So, if the female is still sensible, such things must be
handled quietly, behind closed doors.

For their part, Loroi males are very emotional and feel very
intensely, but they are often fickle and changeable, with short
attention spans. Which I suppose is not that different from many
human males. I'm reminded of a sequence from Finnian's Rainbow
in which a Leprechaun is gradually becoming human: "Oh Sharon,
you're the only one! Wait, you're not Sharon at all; you're
Susan. Yet I feel the same frenzy for you! Is this what it's
like to be mortal? Is every girl the only girl? I'm beginning to
like it!"

Because attachment to a male is discouraged, the most
important emotional attachments for a female Loroi are to her
female friends and relatives. Sisterly affection can be very
intense (as it is among humans), and this intimacy is increased
by telepathic contact, especially when physically touching. This
kind of contact is how most females satisfy their need for
intimacy and emotional fulfillment. It is this telepathic
stimulation (not sex) that is the primary glue that binds Loroi
social groups together. This can be difficult for humans to
appreciate, because of our tendency to think of intimacy
exclusively in sexual terms.

Because telepathic contact satisfies this need for intimacy, homosexual
activity is relatively rare, though in any biological system
there will always be deviation. The idea of a "homosexual
relationship" wouldn't make much sense to the Loroi, since they
don't really have heterosexual "relationships" and they are not
inherently monogamous. Instead, a homosexual female might have a "normal"
intimate friendship with one or more females, to which a sexual
element was added. A homosexual male Loroi would be in a very difficult
position, as he would have very little opportunity for intimacy
with other males.

What? Don't males live in
monasteries separate from the females? You would think that the
place that homosexual activity would occur is in a monastery
separate from the other gender.

Males are constantly surrounded by females, even in the
"monastic" orders. Male children are raised separately from the
female children, but the caregivers are mostly female.

How often
do they have sex (males with
their caretakers)? Is it even allowed ?

It happens -- if one of the lecherous little buggers grabs
you, you're not supposed to say no -- but there are rules. If a
female caretaker monopolizes too much of her charge's time and
energy, or gets pregnant, this is usually grounds for dismissal.
Some orders require that the caretakers be sterilized (which, at
this tech level, is reversible). The caretakers tend to be
older, well-disciplined Loroi who already have adult children.

What is the attitude of Loroi society
toward homosexuality?

I think the view of society will vary depending on
subculture. On the one hand, Loroi traditions can be very rigid,
and deviation from the norm is usually very unwelcome.
On the other hand, such activity would be viewed by the Loroi as
just a private behavior, whereas in our culture it is usually
viewed as choosing a completely alternate lifestyle. And for the
Loroi, sex is almost exclusively a private subject; public
displays of sexuality (of any kind) would be very unusual and
unwelcome. I think that in warrior culture, homosexuality might
be considered a problem, not necessarily because there is
anything "wrong" with such activity, but because in the military
it's important to feel that the warrior next to you has your
back, and is not going to either a) give preferential treatment
to her sexual partners, or b) confront you at inopportune
moments with unwanted sexual advances. And because the nature of
telepathy makes it difficult to keep such things secret.

Do they have a
taboo on sex between relatives (incest)?

Loroi males are separated from the females at birth and are
usually raised completely separately, so often a male may have
very limited contact with his mother, and may never meet any
siblings he has. When he fathers children, he will rarely meet
them either. So there's no social sense of "taboo" against sex
with blood relatives, because they don't really know each other
and there's usually no sense of "family" between males and
females. However, I suspect that having offspring with close
relatives is not ideal from a genetic point of view, so this
practice is probably discouraged. Whoever is doing the
matchmaking between males and females will presumably keep this
in mind.

Do the
Loroi make use of artificial insemination/cloning ??...seems
like a fairly natural development given their need for rapid
reproduction and limited number of men to go around.

There aren't enough males to supply all the females with sex
every day, but sex (though pleasurable) is not for recreation,
but for the purpose of impregnation, and once a female is
impregnated, she doesn't need to have sex again for at least the
duration of the pregnancy (which will be the better part of a
year). Each male would only have to impregnate 10 different
females per year in order to keep the entire population
constantly pregnant, so that's really not the long pole in the
tent (if you will pardon a crude pun). I think the bottleneck in replacing losses will be not
fertilization or even pregnancy term, but rather the time and
infrastructure it takes to raise and train a warrior to
adulthood. The Loroi child care and schooling systems are probably
completely saturated at this point in the war.

Do
female Loroi believe/think that Loroi males are inferior/lower
class?

Not in general; on the contrary, males enjoy relatively high
status in Loroi society. Males are smaller and physically weaker
than females, but since physical strength is not a Loroi
strongpoint, this is not especially relevant -- in terms of
valued telepathic and psychokinetic powers, a male is as likely
to be powerful as a female. Males have different roles than females and their behavior is
proscripted by custom and biology, but they are rare and the females have a biological
imperative to protect them. It's similar in some ways to how
human adults treat children: we're programmed to be fiercely
protective of them, and we often treat them in a patronizing
manner, but we don't expect adult behavior from children, and so
when they act silly or need help, there is rarely a value
judgment attached to that.

Another analogue to consider is the status of a European
gentlewoman of the 18th century; women had rigidly defined roles
and very little power or personal freedom, but courtly manners
required men to defer to women, at least socially, to a large
degree. Men had a patronizing attitude toward women, perhaps,
but not necessarily a negative one.

Economy and Civilian Life

The Loroi economy has some free market elements, but it is
heavily managed by the military government. Business is
considered a civilian pursuit (warriors are prohibited from
engaging in commerce or owning businesses), and so profiteering is viewed with suspicion
by the ruling warrior class. After the formation of the Union,
the Loroi economy opened up somewhat, following more
capitalistic models provided by the Neridi and Barsam and other
aliens that
allowed for faster growth. But many businesses were nationalized
under the martial law instituted by Greywind in 2140, so there
are still a lot of restrictions on the economy.

How is war production handled for the
Loroi? Are ships and such made by civilians or are they in-house
projects by the state?

Manufacturing firms are civilian (or alien) companies, though
many are heavily managed or outright owned by the state,
especially those that are key to the war effort. Defense
industries are still civilian, though with military officers
heavily involved in design and specifications (as they are with
our own civilian military-industrial complex). A significant
percentage of Loroi military hardware is produced by alien
companies.

The Loroi have an official currency called the
talent, worth several thousand dollars; it originated in
ancient times on Deinar as a representation of the value of one
year of unskilled labor. It is used mainly for high-level
transactions between businesses and government entities. Most
individual Loroi are members of a caste (either a warrior caste
or a civilian guild), which often provides housing and other
services as part of the compensation for "employment." Most
caste and guild members are not paid a salary; rather, they are
allocated a sort of "allowance" that is usually in a local
currency or company/military scrip. Most of these currencies
have some sort of tradable token that represents cash, but most
transactions are virtual (as you would expect at this technology
level).

The various alien members of the Union also have their own
currencies (or multiple currencies). Alien companies and
individuals are treated as civilians under Loroi law, and so are
able to engage in commerce. In some ways, alien businesses are
viewed by Loroi society with more favor than Loroi civilian
businesses, because they do not have the social "taint" of being
failed warriors that goes along with the Loroi civilian class.
As such, much of the banking and financial business in Loroi
territory is handled by Neridi and Barsam firms.

How are Loroi paid? If only the civilians
can own businesses, why would warriors stay in the military, and
how can the military afford to compete with the private sector
in salaries?

In the Loroi system, the military is paramount, and the
civilian economy exists almost solely to support the military.
The warrior class is the “upper” class, and civilians are
considered inferior and usually have a lower standard of living.
Most Loroi workers are not free agents; they receive a basic education
from the
state, but then become apprenticed to a guild upon reaching
adulthood to complete their education. Low-ranking Loroi (both warrior and civilian) are a
bit like interns; most are not paid a salary, but are trained
and housed and fed by their employers. As a Loroi worker rises
in position, she gains additional benefits and compensation
(sometimes monetary, sometimes not). Guilds are often local
monopolies (and the military is also a monopoly), so you can
switch jobs, but it’s hard to find higher pay at the same job
somewhere else. A civilian Loroi with the proper resources and business acumen
(and luck) can start her own business and even potentially form
her own guild, which is something that a warrior may never do.
However, civilians are excluded from military (and therefore
government) service and therefore have little or no say in government.
Civilians are also very low in priority when it comes to mating
privileges.

Once a Loroi has completed warrior trials, she is part of the
society’s elite, and enjoys a comparatively high standard of
living, even if she never rises above the lowest rank. Unless
she is dishonorably discharged for some reason, she will never
"retire" into civilian life. As a warrior, she may sometimes
have to dig latrines and her life may frequently be in danger,
but that is considered part of a warrior’s duty. If she doesn’t
like it, she can choose to suffer the ignominy of demotion to
the civilian class. Loroi culture is a warrior culture,
instilled with warrior values from birth. Every billet on a
starship is much coveted by a large number of available
candidates.

Loroi warrior education does have different levels; many
technical disciplines require a 4-year education similar to a
college degree, and some less-technical disciplines (such as
infantry) only require 2 years of training. For example, some of
the Soroin you’ve seen in the comic who are wearing jumpsuits
instead of armor (such as Cloud the “shoe-girl”) are
2-year-educated “Novice” Soroin, who perform mostly menial
tasks. (When considering the length of Loroi secondary
education, keep in mind that it begins at age 8, and so includes
elements of what we would consider high school.) I haven’t
classified these as “enlisted” ranks because the Loroi don’t
share our concept of the class division between enlisted and
officer; there is no barrier to promotion for a 2-year-educated
Soroin to the same higher rank that a 4-year-educated Soroin
would have, provided that she puts in the time and work and
shows the appropriate aptitude. But if she does not, then like
the midshipmen of the age of sail, she may stay a Novice for a
very long time. (There are also specialties that require
training equivalent to a postgraduate degree, but this is
usually attained on the job.)

Do the Loroi have anything resembling
retirement??

Unless they have specific health problems or injuries, most
Loroi are capable of work until shortly before they die, and so
"retirement" is usually a short period of failing health. If a
Loroi warrior becomes mentally incompetent or infirm, then she
is placed into the military health care system, where either she
will be restored to health and active status, or else she will
be cared for until she dies. Many of the larger civilian guilds
have similar health care systems.